iCloud is great but 5GB of free storage just isn't enough. Come on Apple, sort it out!

iCloud Backup – this includes the backups of all your iPads, iPhones, and iPod touches that are saved to the cloud.

• iCloud Drive – this includes all the documents (such as iWork documents) and data from third-party apps on OS X and iOS that store documents and data in the cloud so they can be accessed from any device.

• iCloud mail – this includes all you emails and their attachments from your @icloud.com email account.

• iCloud Photo Library – this is the sum total of every video and photo on all your Macs and iOS devices.

At first that doesn't look like much, right? After all, that's basically only four things: iCloud Backups, iCloud Drive documents and data, your iCloud emails, and iCloud Photo Library. And if you're new to computers or the Internet and have no data history the free 5GB Apple gives you will be more than enough.

Sadly, if you're not a total luddite and, like me, have over a decade's worth of email and photos, not to mention documents and multiple iOS devices that are backed up to iCloud, the 5GB of iCloud storage Apple gives you is a complete joke. Worse, it's a non-starter. It completely locks you out of iCloud's services.This is easy to see when you look at the amount of data all the things iCloud can store actually takes up. For example, my iCloud Backup of my iPhone takes up 4.2GB alone. My iPad backup takes up another 3.3GB. If you're counting along, that's already over the 5GB limit, which means if I don't pony up more cash immediately I can't even send a single iCloud email. But let's not stop with backups, my iCloud Drive documents and data takes up an additional 2.1GB (and I don't use iCloud Drive for much). Then 14 years of iCloud emails (I've had the same email address through Apple since 2002 when iCloud started as iTools, then became .Mac, then became MobileMe, then became iCloud) and their attachments are another 3.4GB. And then we get to iCloud Photo Library, which quite frankly is AMAZING. But I have over 15 years of photos and videos in my Photos library on my Mac. Its total storage size? 175 GBs. So adding all that up (4.2GB+3.3GB+2.1GB+3.4GB+175 GB) equals 188GB of iCloud storage needed–and that's if I don't want to send another email or upload a single new photo. 188GB of storage needed and Apple gives you 5. And the thing is, I'm not the exception, I'm the rule. This is almost 2016. We've been taking digital photos for over a decade and sending emails for almost two. Most other people have 100GB Photos libraries and gigabytes full of iCloud emails, not to mention multiple iOS device backups taking up 5GB or more.